Apart of the activities on intensive railway educational programs the Fachgebiet Schienefahrwege und Bahnbetrieb (Chair of Track and Railway Operations) organizes its research activities in three fields.

• Track: The chair has a long-standing experience in the research of track components with a comprehensively equipped track laboratory. Its tasks focus on track life cycle costs, superstructure dynamics including noise abatement and maintenance optimization.
• Operation: The railway system with its manifold processes places high demands on operation, especially in a liberalized market. The chair’s key areas of research are staff support within these processes, resource conservation and the application of new technologies.
• Strategy: Railway transportation is confronted with ever new challenges. It has to face changing demand behavior and new basic conditions in order to stay in business. Thus, the chair’s research also focuses on sustainable forms of offer and production in passenger and freight transport.

• Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Siegmann: Director of the department.
• Dr.-Ing. Armando Carrillo Zanuy: Freight railways, economics, railway aerodynamics, noise abatement, railway vehicles.
• Dipl.-Ing. Rene Schönemann: Flow management in rail freight, process management in marshalling yards and transshipment terminals, methods to optimize multi-modal transport chains , combined transport, transport economics.
• Dipl.-Ing. Lars Wiegelmann: Transport related market and competition analysis, product development and offer positioning in passenger and rail freight.
• M. Sc. Johannes Friedrich: Operation of urban and suburban railway transportation, trams and other modes of public transit, railway operation rules and regulations, tariff optimization, legal issues of tariff regulations, financing and subsidy-related concerns.
• M.Sc. Armin Emde: Optimizations vehicle and staff Rosters in Public Transport, Public Transport operations and dispatching, future trends for financing long distance rail services outside of urban areas, teaching assignment for production planning in long distance rail services, railway operations, construction of tracks and rail freight traffic.
• M.Sc. Philipp Schneider: Railway operations, railway signaling; teaching assignment for design of railway infrastructure, planning of railway systems and signaling and control systems.

A selection of projects, activities and papers:

• FIS Forchungsinformationssystem: Databank on rail research results and information on railways
• Swiftly Green Project: Best practice methods for Rail freight corridors in Ten-T network
• ViWas Project: Viable Wagonload production schemes
• COINCO South: Feasibility study of a rail tunnel between Germany and Sweden
• Slot management in terminals and marshalling yards: Cooperation with Hamburg Port authority
• EBuEf (facility): Laboratory for research and training on rail traffic management and train driving
• Carrillo Zanuy, Armando (2015) Das COS-BOT-System, ein theoretisches Konzept zur Automatisierung in Eisenbahn-Terminals, ETR Jan/Feb (automation of railway terminals)
• Schönemann, René (2014). Productivity and Scheduling of Intermodal Terminals in a Railroad Network Context, University of Leeds hEART 2014 – 3rd Symposium of the European Association for Research in Transportation
• Schönemann, René (2014). Reconnecting Southern Italy to the European Single Wagonload Market, Euro Žel 2014, 22nd International Symposium, Žiliná
• Schönemann, René (2014). On the Performance of Railway Yards in an Intermodal Supply Chain Context, Euro Žel 2014, 22nd International Symposium, Žiliná